I would like to hand write (not type) three lines of text and then stretch this text into a circle shape. I thought I might be a able to group the text and then somehow place nodes on the selection box around the drawn text and drag it into the shape of a circle. I have been unable to figure out how to do this. Is this possible in a vector drawing program?

I gave it a try:

I used to "write" some text in my drawing.

I selected that "writing" with

Then I went to the main menu and selected "Path" -> "Path effects..." (or type Ctrl + Shift + F7)

From the path effects selector that pops up, I picked "Bend Path" and clicked "Apply".

I then clicked the symbol in the path effects selector, to "edit on canvas".

In my "writing" , a green line was drawn, from left to right. I dragged the center of that line up and my text started bending along that line.


I think you should be able to go further from here.

I tried your suggestion but was unable to get it to work if the writing consisted of separate letters (not connected as in cursive). If my letters are ungrouped then I am told I need to select only one item; if the letters are grouped then I am told the object is not a path even if I chose "object to path" after grouping

Do a combine in stead of a group on the paths to use live path effect on those. The live path effect has limited options at this point. You can do a version of skewing by hand. and cntl a to selecting all the nodes in the combined path, then in Windows hit alt before selecting dragging will stretch the nodes closest along with the node you have. ( In linux it might be the select then hit alt.) The nodes closest to the one you select will move proportionally with it. I think the better looking results still come under effects > generate from path > pattern along path. You may have to added nodes to you path to get a smooth result.

http://www.inkscape.org/screenshots/gal ... ngpath.png

Probably best looking results from http://screencasters.heathenx.org/episode-060/